unPHILtered – Phil Ponce's Blog

By Phil Ponce | Published December 13, 2013
| Comments Off on A Geography Lesson

Last weekend, in the midst of a cold spell, I felt stuck at home and went on Facebook and took one of those geography quizzes that people post. I was appalled at how poorly I did on the Europe quiz. I was fine on western Europe, but awful with the Balkan countries and some of the eastern European countries. So I resolved once and for all to learn them all.

It took me an hour or so to nail it, but I finally committed to memory the location of the countries of the former Yugoslavia. And I also figured out that — going from north to south — the first letters of the largest countries of easternmost Europe spell BURB: Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria. That helped. And once you figure out the little specks of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Liechtenstein, you’ve got it. So, mission accomplished for one corner of the world.

My next goal is to memorize the provinces of Canada (honestly, how many Americans know them?) In the meantime, in case you’re interested, click here for a website that helped me learn Europe. After all, the cold spell ain’t over yet!